


dance, dance (or: how to become more coordinated, wakandan-style)

by skeletondragon



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29936637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skeletondragon/pseuds/skeletondragon
Summary: To help Bucky get used to his new arm, Shuri decides to teach him how to dance. He’s almost good at it!
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Okoye, James "Bucky" Barnes & Shuri, James "Bucky" Barnes & T'Challa
Kudos: 4





	dance, dance (or: how to become more coordinated, wakandan-style)

**Author's Note:**

> “I’d like to see [Shuri] teach Bucky how to dance” – Sebastian Stan, Infinity War interview with Glamour UK

“Your Highness, I don’t quite understand what it is you want me to do here.”

Bucky stood in the middle of an unused Dora Milaje training room clad in an old tank-top, a grungy pair of sweatpants, and his incongruously shiny left arm. Shuri stood in front of him, vibrating with excitement, the plainness of her t-shirt and leggings only emphasizing the bright neon of her leg warmers.

“Bucky, how often do I need to tell you to stop calling me that? If you don’t want me to call you James, then you have to respect my wishes and call me Shuri!”

Bucky looked down momentarily, chastised. “Right, yeah, you’ve told me that. Shuri, I still don’t understand what I’m doing here.”

“You are here for a very special, very important aim. You are here – to dance!”. Shuri punctuated her last word with a dramatic flourish, pressing her kimoyo beads. As she did so, a wild, rapid beat started thrumming from the walls, filling the room with a frantic melody. She started moving to the rhythm, gesturing at Bucky to join her.

Bucky didn’t move. The only change in his body language was his mouth ticking down into a frown. “Your Hi- _Shuri_ , what on Earth are you doing?”

With a huff, Shuri stopped moving, pressing the beads again so that the music abruptly paused and crossing her arms. “Bucky! Why are you being such a stick in the mud? Come on, just move! It will be fun!”

His frown grew deeper. “You want me…to dance.”. The remark was flat, a statement of disbelief rather than a question. Shuri nodded vigorously, gesticulating at him to come closer to her. He raised his right hand to rub at his temples, unsure where to start with his objections. “It’s been awhile since I’ve danced, princess.”

Shuri sighed. “Okay, Bucky. I understand that you might have some hesitations about this, but I have a good reason for it.” She pointed to his left side, where his mechanical arm hung loosely. “You haven’t been using your new arm much, right?”

It had been a week since he had received the arm from her, and though the technology worked perfectly, it was so efficient, so precisely engineered that it nearly threw him off balance. His previous arms were weapons, but this was nearly art. The old arms were meant to crush, to injure, to _hurt_ others. This new arm, though, with its delicate motions and fine sensitivity, felt like something he might destroy too easily just from the muscle memory of heavier equipment.

And even if he could learn to use this arm- then what? At best, it would be another weapon, and even if used for good it would only be a matter of time before it was covered with enemy blood. At worst, he would miscalculate and it would sooner end up with the blood of his allies, his friends. No, best to avoid all that entirely. He had dutifully run through all the necessary calibrations with her in the lab, but at his hut he had preferred to take the prosthesis off and keep working with his one remaining biological arm.

Bucky used that arm now to scratch the back of his head lightly, looking over her shoulder at the wall behind her. “Ah, no, I suppose I have not.”

“Part of that is because you aren’t used to having such a _finely_ made piece of machinery to work with,” she said began brazenly, before hesitating a moment and continuing in a gentler voice, “and part of that is because you, either subconsciously or not, associate using your arm with committing violence.” Eyes widening, Bucky started to interject, but Shuri swiftly cut him off. “Bucky, it’s okay – I’ve been inside your brain, I know what you did. It’s not your fault, but if you’re going to be using my arm, then you need to be more comfortable with it.” She looked down and swung her right foot, scuffing the floor with the tip of her shoe. “I thought dancing would be a good way for you to see that you can use it for more than just harming other people.”

Bucky blinked. He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised at Shuri’s logic. She was the girl who was smart enough to fix his brain, so he supposed his arm must be easy stuff for her.

“Plus,” Shuri looked up and said, voice slipping back to the familiar sarcastic tone he heard so often in her lab, “You’ve mostly missed the last seven decades of pop culture, and if you’re only learning from T’Challa then you’re going to get nowhere – so it’s up to me to catch you up!”

Bucky’s mouth pulled up into a tentative smile. He still wasn’t sure about the efficacy of her plan, but her hope was endearing and infectious. He let out a put-upon sigh and shrugged his shoulders. “Alright, princess, let’s have at it. You deprogrammed my brain, so I guess I ought to go along with this hare-brained scheme of yours.”

Shuri grinned at his assent and pressed her beads again, the bass starting its steady _thump-thump-thump_ through the floorboards. 

* * *

Over the next few months, Bucky continued to meet with Shuri several times a week in the training room to practice his dancing. To his immense pride, as the days wore on and Shuri continued her coaching, the movements with his arm began to feel more natural.

She moved through different styles almost at random – one day it was milly rocking, the next week was samba, and then after came a memorable two-week stretch of popping and locking. With each new dance, Shuri pulled up hours of YouTube videos to show Bucky how to do them properly before having him try to perform the moves himself.

Not that she knew how to do all the dances, either. Some she had clearly practiced before and guided him through – Bucky noticed that all of those were from songs in the 21st century, which made him feel _old_ , so he quickly hopped off that train of thought – but others she was clearly learning alongside him. It cheered him to see her struggle with him to master the footwork and hand movements. She had an easy, instinctive flow to her movements that he envied, but his height and muscles gave a strength to his performance that she openly applauded.

Together, they moved through each style, not quite completely mastering each one but getting enough of a solid base that Bucky began to feel quite an accomplished almost-dancer. Of all the things he’d learned, he felt most proud of the partnered dances he performed with Shuri. Whether it was waltzing, salsa-ing, or even breakdancing, the feel of holding her, releasing her, catching and lifting her in the air – they all made him more confident in his arm. He was no longer afraid of breaking her wrist when he caught her to spin back to him. The movement was as natural as any he would’ve performed before being put under the ice.

Best of all, Bucky could tell that Shuri was proud of him. Sure, she was proud of her own handiwork too, but Bucky could sense from her delighted laughter with each lift that she was ecstatic her crazy plan had worked and worked well. Seeing her joy, he was inclined to agree.

* * *

One day, Bucky walked in to the training room only to find Okoye standing near the side, her typical gear swapped for a pair of loose pants and a sports bra. He glanced around the room, but there was no sign of Shuri to be seen, so he ambled over to Okoye’s side.

“Okoye! It is lovely to see you, as always,” he started, silently proud of mustering a shadow of his old charm. Not everything had been lost to the ice, it seemed. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“This room is intended for the Dora Milaje to practice with – a better question might be what _you_ are doing here.” Okoye held her stern face for a moment, but just as Bucky was beginning to worry that he was intruding on some planned training session, she broke out into a smile. “I am only joking, James. Shuri is currently occupied with her royal duties, and so she asked me to come here in her stead.”

“And by royal duties, do you mean her dress fitting sessions for T’Challa and Nakia’s engagement ceremony? She’s been complaining about that for weeks. I was starting to think she was using me to get out of it.”

Okoye’s grin became more sardonic. “Who is to say she wasn’t? Although from what she tells me, you aren’t so good that you don’t need more help.” At the look of mock outrage on Bucky’s face, she tipped her head back and laughed, the rich sound reverberating throughout the room. As it settled, she extended her hand out to Bucky. “Come, let me show you some of our traditional dances – I know that Shuri has been teaching you more modern dance moves, but you will do these at the engagement ceremony and it would be unbecoming for you to fall flat on your face.”

Bucky started to object that he was perfectly capable to keeping his balance, but as Okoye instructed him through the moves, he was glad that he held his tongue. When she showed the steps to him, she looked like a picture of grace. When he tried the same steps, he looked like a water buffalo trampling through a field. More than once, his feet tripped from under him as she patiently took him through the intricate footwork. He was glad for his new arm as it shot out to catch him again and again and again, as unerring as his right.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of repetition, Okoye deemed that Bucky was at least competent enough to not embarrass himself and by extension the royal family at the ceremony. “But,” she said, the strict tone of her voice belied by the twinkle of amusement in her eye, “you have a long way to go, so I will be back when Shuri has her next fitting.”

Bucky wasn’t looking forward to missing Shuri’s company, exactly, but he did find himself looking forward to dancing with Okoye again.

* * *

The day after Okoye’s last lesson with Bucky, Shuri tiredly walked into the room only to find Bucky already sitting on the floor, moving through some easy stretches. She let out a pleased sound at seeing how easily he now used his arm as he reached and bent forward. Of course, she was happy that her technology was working, but she had never really had any doubt of that – she was more happy to see how well Bucky had adapted to it, how easily it flowed now with the lines of his body.

She knew he heard her enter and saw him turn his head slightly to the door. “Afternoon, Shuri!”

“Well, aren’t you chipper.”  
  


“I am a veritable ball of sunshine. But you seem a bit down, is something up?”

She ought to have known he’d have noticed her slightly more subdued demeanor. “No, it’s nothing big, I’m just a bit tired.” Bucky continued to look at her quizzically, so she figured she should give him the full explanation. She sighed and collapsed next to him on the floor, spreading her limbs out in a gangly sprawl. “This morning was the last fitting for those new clothes and then I went to the lab and found out that the parts I had ordered for my new project were delayed so I won’t be able to start on it until next week, and there were a half-dozen other things went wrong before noon and I’m just over today, really.” She gave him a wan smile, still peppy but not quite as enthusiastic as she typically was.

Bucky listened to her and was struck by a pang of sadness. It may have been just a regular, terrible day for Shuri, but after all she’d done for him, the thought of her having any bad days annoyed him. Quick as the thought came to him, though, another one crossed his mind.

“Well, Shuri, I don’t know if I can help with any of that, but I do think I know something that will cheer you up.” At this, Shuri arched an eyebrow. Bucky stood up, walked a few paces away, then dramatically turned back towards her. “This is from my last lesson from Okoye,” he said by way of explanation before drawing in a large breath and making a show of preparing his act.

Then, he broke out into the robot.

As soon as she saw his movements, Shuri let out a screech of laughter. Bucky’s face split into a wide grin and his face flushed a dark pink as he continued to pivot and twist. This may have been the stupidest thing he’d done in a long time, but seeing her collapse into a fit of much-needed giggles almost made up for the embarrassment as he realized with mild horror that she would remind him about this for the rest of his life.

“Bucky, I don’t think I have anything left to teach you!”

* * *

Steve was sitting on a couch, reading _A Game of Thrones_. Even after being out of the ice for several years, seventy years worth of pop culture was a lot to catch up on, and between Loki, the Chitauri, Ultron, and the dozens of other miscellaneous threats that popped up weekly, he hadn’t had an excessive amount of time for it. Now that the dust had finally settled, he was enjoying some well-deserved rest and catching up on his almost insurmountable mountain movies, television, books, and podcasts. He heard the doors slide open behind him and the familiar sound of footsteps. “Hello, Sam,” he said without looking up from his book.

Steve’s reading was suddenly interrupted by a minute or so of unintelligible noise followed by a loud burst of laughter behind him. Twisting in his seat, he saw Sam doubled over with laughter, hands on his knees and eyes on his phone.

“You okay over there?” Steve asked, carefully placing a bookmark in before walking over. Sam didn’t say anything, still chuckling as he wiped away a tear and held up his screen for Steve to see. It was a video that Shuri had sent Sam – Steve knew they texted back and forth regularly, but he didn’t know enough about memes to follow their conversations. The still image showed Bucky with the caption “sometimes you can teach an old wolf new tricks”. He clicked the video and let it play.

Steve recognized the ceiling of the Wakandan royal chambers, resplendent in its brilliant azure, amethyst, and emerald coloring. The video was surprisingly shaky, considering the usual stability of Wakanda’s technology, with a quiet, erratic sound permeating through the background. After a few seconds, Steve realized the sound was Shuri’s unsuccessfully suppressed laughter.

The camera swung downward and re-focused. Steve saw Bucky standing in front of T’Challa, guiding his hands as they both moved. T’Challa was bent at the waist, his right hand in the air as he moved up and down.

“No, Your Highness, you move your hands at the same time that you move your torso up and down.”

“Like this?”

“Yes, now just move your hips a bit more and you’ll nearly be there.”

“And what is the purpose of this?”

“Shuri showed these to me. She said that the dances would help with my coordination, especially considering the number of times I’ve been put under the ice and the neural rearrangements she did to integrate in the new arm.”

“I am not disagreeing with her, but what was the-”

“She also said now that Wakanda is opening up to outsiders, the onus is on us to show some initiative and interact with wider world, pop culture included.”

“Isn’t that her job with the outreach center?”

“It is, but she said that it would be good to show that you’re also ‘up to date with the youth’, whatever that means. To tell you the truth, I don’t quite understand it, but she’s the genius who fixed my brain, so I’m just following her lead.” As T’Challa continued moving, Bucky let out a whoop. “Yes! Now you’ve got it, Your Highness!”

A louder squeak of laughter escaped from Shuri, and T’Challa's eyes shot up, spotting her peeking around the corner. “No, Shuri, you stop recording, turn that off!”. The video dissolved into flashes and shakes as Shuri made her escape. Suddenly, her face was on the screen, still shaking with the motion of running down the hall. “I hope you enjoyed that, Sam!”. Steve heard Bucky’s voice faintly in the background shouting, “Sam?!” before the video cut to black.

Steve shook with laughter and handed the phone back to Sam. _Well, it looks like he’s learning a lot in Wakanda, at least._

**Author's Note:**

> The other title for this was “Bucky teaches T’challa how to Vossi Bop.”
> 
> Bucky still isn’t that good at modern-day dancing, but it’s not like T’Challa knows that, eh?


End file.
